


Dark Sea

by optimustaud



Series: City of Owls [2]
Category: Tokyo Ghoul
Genre: Body Horror, Cannibalism, Eto is Cthulhu, Euthanasia, Eye Trauma, Gore, Horror, Lovecraftian, Other, Swearing, WWI AU, disturbing imagery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-01
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-24 02:01:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 7
Words: 16,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6137443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/optimustaud/pseuds/optimustaud
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Prequel to City of Owls</p><p>Two injured men returning home from the front are lost in a storm at sea. While drifting  a black island rises in front of them.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Dextra2](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dextra2/gifts).



> Prequel to City of Owls
> 
> I was hoping this was going to be a one shot. T-T  
> As with the first story I got a bit carried away and it has expanded more than I originally intended. 
> 
> In any case, enjoy. Historical notes at the end of the fic.

I.

 

“You should come back inside.”  

 

Hide leaned over the rail of the ship and watched the waves slap across the hull.  He took a deep breath, savoring the scent of the cool, salty air.  He had been standing on the deck for an hour and still had not managed to purge the scent of blood and body odor from his nostrils.  He wished the doctor would leave and let him enjoy the fresh air for a bit longer before he had to go back down to the hot, cramped beds below deck.

 

He was going home.  He didn’t really know how he should feel about that.  He supposed that he should be happy.  The truth was that he only felt tired and empty.

 

“Mr. Nagachika . . . Hideyoshi,” the voice said more insistently this time.

 

He wished it would go away.  Hide slapped his cheeks and snorted softly.  He wasn’t going to get the time he still needed to compose himself so he would simply have to make due.    After all he couldn’t let Ken see him depressed.

 

“Mr. Nagachika, I really have to insist . . .”

 

He turned away from the ocean to face the man behind him.  He grinned so hard that his face hurt.  “Awww Doc, I am fine.  Don’t worry so much.”

 

He wasn’t.  The stump of his right arm was starting to ache in the cold.

 

Doctor Akihirou Kanou had grown used to Hide’s evasiveness in the weeks they had spent at sea.  He merely reached out and grabbed Hide’s left  shoulder before pushing him back to the patient bunks below decks.

 

He hated the doctor just a little.  Something about the man reminded him of weasel circling a bird’s nest.  His insincerity rubbed Hide the wrong way every time they spoke.  Sometimes Hide wondered if he wasn’t being uncharitable because of the situation they were in. Then Hide would remember all those times that Ken had told him how much he trusted Hide’s judgement when it came to other people.  

 

“You’re more reliable than Ladybird,” Ken had joked.  It had been one of the rare times Hide had remembered Ken telling a joke.  To be honest, he had been flattered by  comparison.  Ladybird had been a damn fine hound dog and Ken’s second most trusted companion. 

 

“You shouldn’t be up here right now.  There is a storm coming in.  Things are about to get rough.”  Kanou went on as he guided Hide back below decks.  Hide was immediately hit with the smell of the sick men suffering in the belly of the ship.  The scent of strong disinfectants did little to mask the smell of body odor, human excrement, and vomit.  In fact, it only combined with the distasteful odors which in a way was worse.  

 

Hide shook off the doctor at the first opportunity and maneuvered through the claustrophobic spaces until he found his bed.  He settled on his bunk and looked over to where Ken was resting.  His best friend seemed to be unconscious at the moment.   It was a relief.  When they had set sail from France Ken had been reasonably healthy all things considered.  The surgeons had said he was well enough to make the tripe back to the States.  However, at some point during the journey Ken had fallen ill and now he was in pain whenever he was awake.  

 

Hide reached out impulsively to touch the other man’s uninjured shoulder.  “Hang in there buddy, we’ll be home soon.”  He had been saying that for weeks hoping that his voice could give Ken the strength he needed to hang on to life.  It had been a long time since he had heard Ken joke about his dog.

  
  


Hide could remember their final fight clearly.  They had been hunkered down in a trench when a stray shell had gone off too close to their hiding place.  Ken had shielded Hide with his body during the explosion.  What followed was two horrible hours of being pinned beneath his best friends body until the shelling had stopped and help had finally arrived.  

 

Hide lost his arm.  Ken lost half his face and his left leg.  

 

Hide had never felt so miserable and helpless.  He couldn’t stand to see the oddly sunken in bandages that covered Kaneki’s face.  He had seen the wound when it was fresh and he was certain that it would haunt his nightmares for the rest of his life.  

 

Hide patted Ken’s shoulder again and then settled back down to sleep.  He curled under the blankets and let the rocking of the ocean draw him down into slumber.

 

* * *

 

 

He was shaken awake roughly. The ocean was tossing the ship around and he could hear the structure of the ship creak around him.  

 

“If you can walk, let’s go,” an orderly demanded.  “We’re sinking.”  The man turned to wake Kaneki.  He took one look at the man's injuries and then seemed to change his mind.  “We need to get to the lifeboats.”

 

Hide swung his legs over the side of his bunk.  Water was already starting to pool around his ankles.  “I am not leaving without him.”  Before the Orderly could react Hide had pushed by to stand at Ken’s side.  

 

The orderly snorted.  “You know its a waste of time right?  He is going to die without care.  And being stuck at sea for god knows how long isn’t going to help.”

 

Hide shook his head.  “I won’t let him drown.”  He couldn’t imagine a more horrible death, to be thrown into the sea ignorant and helpless.  “I’m taking him with me.”

 

Hide considered his friend’s limp body.  There was no way he could pick Ken up without hurting him.  There was no way he could lift him with one arm.  If the Orderly didn’t help him Kaneki was going to die here.

 

No.  If no one would help him he would drag Ken above decks by himself.  If he was going to die Hide was going to make sure he wasn’t going to die alone.  With the Orderly watching Hide wrapped his arm around Kaneki and hauled him up.

 

 As soon as Ken’s head left the pillow his eyes opened and he groaned in pain.  Hide thought that if he wasn’t drugged to his gills that he would probably be screaming.  The Orderly swore impatiently and then went to help other patients to the lifeboats.

 

“Ken, we need to move.  Can you hang in there for a little while?”

 

One glassy grey eye stared at him from the bandages that swathed his head.  He watched as Ken struggled to understand his words.  Then he nodded and wound his arms over Hide’s shoulders.  The look of absolute faith never left Ken’s eyes.  

 

Ken helped him as best he could even though  Hide was certain that he had no idea what was going on.  They slowly made their way up to the decks as the bunk room continued to fill with seawater. 

 

“You just keep holding on to me buddy, don’t worry about anything else, you hear me?” Hide felt Ken’s arms tighten around him.  He carefully made his way through the water, straining his thighs so he didn’t lose his balance.  

 

Just as they reached the stairs to the upper deck when the Orderly reappeared in the doorway.    “Here,” he said gruffly and reached out to take Kaneki.  “Everyone else is on the lifeboats. You two are riding with me and Kanou.”  He pulled Kaneki from Hide’s arms.  “Follow me.”

 

Hide stood in shock for a moment.  “Thank you,” he said softly.

 

The orderly snorted.  “Don’t say that just yet.  Wait until you see what's gonna happen to your friend when he's stranded at sea.  You're gonna wish he had drowned.”

 

Hide fell in step behind the huge man.  He climbed into the lifeboat as the orderly quickly propped Ken against the seats and went to help Kanou with the ropes securing the lifeboat to the hospital ship.

 

He wrapped his good arm around Ken as the lifeboat was lowered into the water.  Hide pulled his friend against his chest and did his best to shield him from the rain and winds of the storm.  In this situation all he could do was shield Ken and trust Kanou and his orderly to row them away from the sinking ship.    

 

“Yamori,” Kanou yelled to the orderly and Hide’s head jerked up.  Kanou was pointing in to the night and Hide could see the other lifeboats bobbing on the rough waves.  Together the doctor and the orderly swung the lifeboat around to join the small convoy.

 

They were only a few feet away from reaching the other lifeboats when a great rumbling arose from the sea.  A massive wave rose between them and the other lifeboats.  Hide yelled in horror and pulled Ken to the bottom of the boat.  He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for the wave to crash into them. 

 

Hide felt the rough water jerk the tiny vessel skywards only to bring it crashing back down again.  Water sloshed over the prow soaking him to the bone.  He held on to Ken as the momentum drug him from one end of the lifeboat to the other.  He was overcome by vertigo and soon lost track of which way was up or down.   

 

Hide wasn’t sure how long or how far they were carried.  He didn’t dare open his eyes until he felt the frantic movement of the lifeboat ease into a gentle rocking.  When he looked out over the prow the other lifeboats and the storm were nowhere to be seen.

 

* * *

 

 

Yamori was not wrong. A thorough soaking from the storm and one full day at sea weakened Ken considerably.  A harsh fever was raging through his body.  Ken spent most of their first evening screaming in delirium and having conversations with his absent mother and sister.  Hide did everything they could to soothe is friend, but nothing worked.  

 

Two days passed as they drifted over calm waters.  Hide spent his time trying to shield Ken from the unforgiving elements.  Kanou and Yamori took charge of the lifeboat and the supplies.  Hide often saw the two men throwing speculative glances in his direction and it made him nervous.  The truth was that there was very little he could do if the two men decided to act.  

 

On the third morning Hide woke to Yamori picking through their medical supplies.  “Do you understand now?” the orderly asked.  “We need to do this.”  Yamori was holding a syringe in one hand and a ampule of morphine in the other.

 

Hide gathered what was left of his dwindling strength for one last fight.  If they were going to kill Ken they would have to kill him as well.     Kanou placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.  “It will be quick Hide.  He will just fall asleep.  You know just how much he is going to suffer if we leave him like this.”

 

Yamori reached for them.  “Get the hell away from us,” he snarled.  “I won’t let you just throw him away like that you son’s of bitches.”

 

“Hide,”  Kanou said softly.  “Be reasonable.  He is suffering.”

 

“He is fighting,” Hide bit back.  He could not forget the way Ken had protected him during the shelling or the trusting way he had gripped Hide back on the ship.  It was his turn to protect Ken now and he would be damned if he let Kanou and Yamori just murder him in his sleep.

 

“We have to think logically,” Kanou continued. “The supplies . . .”  

  
  


The placid ocean waters around the lifeboat began to bubble and churn..  It brought the argument to hault as the three conscious men looked out towards the sea.  Hide watched in fascination as a shadow grew like an inky stain on the waters surface.  Something was coming towards their tiny lifeboat.  This time it wasn’t a giant, winged creature.  Instead  a black island rose from the depths of the dark ocean waters. 

 

The island rumbled as it stopped rising and the waves calmed.  The lifeboat lurched forward, propelled by some unseen force.  Hide grabbed the edges of the boat and tried to steady Ken as they were jerked forward.  He braced them as he felt the lifeboat grind into the shore. He heard Kanou and the blond orderly swear as they boat came to a sharp halt.  

 

Hide heard the sounds of wet feet slapping against stone and he looked up.  There was a woman standing on the shore watching them.  She stopped and smiled like a small child greeting new visitors.  She was a small woman, her nudity only covered by her long green hair and a pale loin cloth.  There were two strange animals standing at her side.  They looked like a twisted combination of dog and human.  The two creatures huffed and growled softly.

  
  


“Hello,” she greeted cheerfully.  It made every hair on Hide’s neck stand on end.  

Kanou and Yamori shifted behind him. They were all openly staring at the odd woman.

 

“Nothing to say,” she said with a laugh.  “I guess it must have been a shock.  Seeing my island.”

 

This seemed to draw Kanou out of silence.  “Madam, are you responsible for this?”  He was eyeing the two creatures sitting at the woman's feet.

 

“It’s my island,” she agreed.  “But he called me.”  She pointed at Hide.

 

“I did?”  Hide asked.

 

“No you.  Him.”  She moved her finger down a quarter of an inch to indicate the nearly comatose man resting beneath Hide.  

 

“I heard him.  A soul that had given up all hope in the world,”  She was smiling beatifically.  Her finger moved up to point at Hide again.  “Although, I like you too.”

 

Kanou was carefully easing his way out of the boat.  The Doctor kept his eyes locked on the odd human- dog creatures that were resting at the woman's feet.  “Why did you bring us here?”  The doctor asked cautiously.

 

“I wanted to see who was calling to me,”  she said as if she were explaining something very simple to a very small child.  She took a step towards the boat.  

 

Yamori scrambled out of the boat to place himself in front of Kanou. The woman ignored them and came towards Hide and Ken, her strange guards trailed behind her.  Hide braced himself against the boat with his one good arm.  

 

“It’s all right,”  she said carelessly as she peered over the edge of the boat to stare down at Ken.  She reached out and touched his forehead.  His grey eyes flickered open and for a moment they were clear of pain and confusion.  

 

Hide fought the urge to pull away from the odd woman.  Something about her set off every fight or flight instinct in his body.  She smelled like sea foam and damp earth, being next to her was like standing on the edge of a black hole and hoping that it didn’t decide to suck you in.  He was shaking and he couldn’t stop.  The only thing that held him in place was his single minded desire to protect Ken.  

 

The woman leaned against the prow and traced Kaneki’s forehead with one finger, drawing meaningless designed across his forehead with her fingertip.  “Hmmm he has two hearts,”  she said finally,  “part of him wants me and part of him wants you.”  She looked up at Hide.

 

“I don’t understand,” Kanou said suddenly.  “What are you talking about?  What are you going to do with my patient?”

 

A wave of disgust rolled over Hide.  Ken was ‘my patient’ now when only a moment ago the doctor had been willing to kill him.

 

The woman didn’t even look up.  She only waved one of her arms towards the Doctor and one of her pets left her side and advanced on the pair of them.  The beast didn’t attack, but it did force them back towards the shoreline, snarling at them if they moved to close to the woman.  

 

“What if you came with us?”  Hide’s head jerked back towards the woman at the sound of her voice.  He looked at her noticing for the first time that her eyes were an alien red on black.  She reached out and touched Hide’s check.  The world spun away and he cried out in surprise.  He could feel the weight of her; something older than the stars in the sky and as immovable as mountain stone.  He was nothing, not even an insect, not even worthy to be crushed beneath her heel.  He existed only for the chance that he might provide her with some amusement.

 

Hide’s thoughts spun back to reality.  He understood that the choice she was offering him was no choice at all.  If he refused there was nothing to stop her from simply taking what she wanted.  If he complied it would please her for a time and maybe that would make her willing to listen to him.

 

“Can you heal him, heal us?”  Hide asked shakily.

 

The woman frowned and examined the awkward stump of his arm and the bandages that swathed Kaneki’s entire body.  “Hmm, I guess you won’t be much fun like that.  All right.”

 

Hide swallowed and nodded.  He listened to the sound of the wind against the beach and the sound of the bodies moving behind him.  

 

“Hide,”  Kaneki’s weak voice rasped taking him by surprise.  “Let Hide go,” he wheezed.  “Let . .. go,” he said before passing out again.

 

The woman was smiling.  She knew that there was no way that Hide was going to leave Kaneki alone with her.  He had survived a horrific war.  He would find a way to survive whatever she was planning.

 

“All right.”

 

The woman laughed.  She reached down to the creature standing at her side.  “I was getting tired of this one anyway.”  She jammed her hand into the beast's skull.  The creature let out a harsh sound that was half human scream and half dog yelp.  Hide winced as he heard the slick sound of her hand sliding through blood and raw meat.  The dead beast dropped to the ground as the woman withdrew her fist.  She held out her gory fist and opened her hand to reveal the creatures odd eye ball nestled in her palm.  “Eat,” she said with a smile.

 

Hide slumped as he re-balanced himself in the boat.  He reached, took the eyeball, and swallowed it whole.

  
For a moment nothing happened.  Then Hide’s world exploded and he knew nothing but pain.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken and Eto have a chat. Things are bad all over.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Historical notes at the end of the chapter.
> 
> There is some description of a battlefield in here. If you want to avoid it scroll down to after the first page break.
> 
> So I am in the middle of writing chapter 3 when I check the manga spoilers . . . and nothing got done after that. I feel like I should have learned this lesson by now- Don't plan on getting any writing done on spoiler day, the chapter release will destroy you.

II.

 

Ken dreamed of the past.

 

It was early spring.  The cool air had kept him curled under his blankets for a few more moments of precious warmth.  He had just decided to roll out of bed when he heard his mothers angry voice and the indignant squal of a hog.   He threw off his blankets and raced downstairs to find the hog his father had been fattening running rampage through the living room.  His mother had cornered Hide in the kitchen and was backing him into a corner with no other weapon but her index finger. Hide  looked up as soon as Ken had entered the kitchen.

 

“Ken,” he had shouted which effectively distracted the irate woman.  “Listen,”  Hide weaseled his way past his mother,  “You gotta help me.  The pig got in the house.  I have no idea how that happened.”

 

Ken was pretty sure that his friend was lying and he was halfway tempted to just let Hide clean up after himself.  Instead he rolled up his sleeves and helped Hide heard the hog out of the house and back into its pen.  Ken never found out just how Hide had gotten the hog from the pen and into the living room.  

 

Sometimes he would dream of sitting on his front porch in the harsh afternoon sun.  One hand would be resting on Ladybird’s head and the other would be holding a book. He could hear his mother and his sister speaking in the living room. Sometimes he swore he could hear Hide calling to him from the edge of the road.

 

More often he dreamed of the war.

 

He could feel the slick mud of the trenches all around him as he tried to claw is way out.  He could smell blood and rot in the air along with the cloying stench of gun powder and overheated metal.  The smell seeped into his brain and drove him into a sick frenzy where the only thing he knew was that he had to get out.

 

He could hear them all around him; men groaning and gasping their last breath.  They screamed and begged for help. They called for their mothers, wives, and lovers before their voices lost all strength and fell silent.  

 

The death cries were not limited to just men either.  He could hear horses screaming in pain.  Donkeys and mules were braying as they spilled their guts into the cold mud.  When the dying dogs howled out for comfort Ken thought of Ladybird and those quiet summer days on the porch.  He would have cried if there were any tears left in him.

 

The dreams always ended the same way.  He would hear the sharp whistle of an incoming shell, a noise he was certain would haunt him for the rest of his life.  He would turn and push Hide to the ground shielding him right before the world exploded in fire. 

  
  
  


* * *

  
  
  


Ken’s entire world was pain.  He drifted between moments of clarity before falling into an agony filled haze that choked him to breathlessness.  When he first woke up in the clinic and learned that the final shell had taken his leg and mangled his face and he nearly gave in to despair.  He held on to the hope that he would soon get to see his mother and sister again.

 

That hope was cruelly destroyed with a single letter sent by Hide’s mother.  Weeks before he had been injured both his mother and sister had died of the flu.  He no longer had a home to return to.

 

Hide kept him alive.  He could not abandon his brother no matter how dark his future looked.  When Hide had begged him to keep moving on the flooded ship he had obeyed.  When Hide had forced him to drink on those days they had been stuck at sea he did so even though he had no desire to continuing caring for himself.   He went limp, gave in, and let Hide guide him.  

 

Then something had called to him out on the ocean.  He had felt it pull at him and he called back to it.   _ Come with me, I am lonely too.  Together we can watch this world die,  _ it said to him.  He could feel that call pouring over him like a well of black ink.   _ Humans are trash, don’t you want to make them pay? _  And he did.  After everything he had seen men do to each other over the past year and a half he could not deny that urge within him now.  The only thing human that was worth saving was Hide.  

 

_ Come to me.  I will build you up, I will make you strong _ , the voice whispered.

 

_ I am here,  _ Ken called back.  The feeling brushed gently and smugly across his mind and then the black island had risen from the waves.

 

He listened to the woman on the shore knowing that she was the source of the strange voice that had called out to him.  Now that she was standing in front of him he could feel her, fingers on his forehead and her thoughts invading his own.  Alarm filtered through him.   _ Now, now,  _ she said.   _ You reached out to me.  It’s too late to be shy now. _

 

He could hear Hide and the apprehensive voices of the doctor and Yamori.  He could feel her plans for each of them combing through his thoughts and the sure confidence that there was nothing he could do to stop her now.  He strained and gasped out a broken warning.

 

Then Hide took the eye and swallowed it.  

 

Ken watched helplessly as his friends mouth stretched open in a silent scream.  He bent backwards, his spine making the shape of a bow.  His limbs trembled and contorted and his body shook.  Hide collapsed.

 

There was a long, strained silence.  Ken groaned, his fingers twitching as he tried to reach out to the body lying next to him.  Then the woman placed a cool hand on his bandaged forehead.  Ken suddered at the contact and tried to shrink away from her hands.  He felt her fingers press gently at the bandages around his face and a wave of nausea washed over him.  Very slowly she peeled the wrappings away from his body.

 

Fear shot through him.  Ken hadn’t seen his own face in months.  His doctors had been very careful to keep him away from any mirrors during his recovery.  The woman’s fingers descended to his face and he flinched relexively, the deadend nerves of his burned scarred face were no longer capable of feeling her soft touch.   The woman hovered over him as she bent to inspect his mangled features and he pressed his body back against the grainy boards of the lifeboat. 

 

“Beautiful,” she said and smiled at him. 

 

She drew her hand away from his face.  Ken looked on in horror as she sank her fingers into her eye socket.  Blood ran down her face as she clawed at her strange red in black eye.  The sound reminded Ken of wet noodles sliding together as she dug through her own flesh.  Her eye finally came free with a slick squelching noise, the optic nerve dangling like a piece of thread between her fingers.  

 

She held her eye in her hand seeming not to notice the blood running from the dark, empty socket in her skull.  With her free hand she reached down.  Her fingers circled his swollen eye socket for a moment before she dug her fingers into his face.  He realized what was just about to happen and tried to jerk his head out of her reach.  

 

Then he was screaming more out of shock than of any actual pain he was feeling.  He squeezed his unmolested eye shut so he didn’t have to watch what she was doing to him.  When he felt his eye leave his skull he let the shock and the horror of the days events carry him away into darkness.

  
  


* * *

  
  


 

Ken woke with a startled jerk, his arms flailing at empty air. 

 

“Whoa take it easy,”  a pair of warm hands caught his shoulder and pressed him back.  He felt a hard stone slab against his back and could hear the snap of fire flickering on a bed of wood.  He blinked and stared up a high black ceiling.  

 

“Dr. Kanou,” he asked the man standing over him.  “What happened.”

 

“She healed you,”  Kanou was breathless and his face flushed with excitement.  “Here.”  He lifted Ken’s hand and pressed it against his face. Ken gasped.  He was completely taken off guard by the sudden feeling of warmth against his face.  “Can you feel what she did?”

 

Ken pushed Kanou’s hands away. He pressed his palm harder and then brought his other hand up to cradle the other side of his face. The mass of scars was completely gone.  The bones in his face that had been too shattered to heal properly were once again smooth and solid.   He pressed the pads of his fingers roughly over his nose, cheekbones, and mouth.

 

“Your left eye,”  Kanou bent closer and tilted his head back, interrupting Ken’s exploration of his own face.  “Can you see out of it?”

 

“Yes,”  he answered weakly.  “What did she do after she took it?”  he asked a sick feeling sweeping through him.

 

Kanou grunted and for the first time since the conversation had started, looked a little uncomfortable.  “Well . . . she replaced it.  With her eye.  Then she took your eye for herself.”

 

“It was amazing,”  Kanou babbled on.  “She put that eye in and you started to heal.  Your face, your leg.  I have never seen anything like it.”

 

Ken forced down a rising surge of panic.  She had ripped in to him and stolen his flesh.  Then she had replaced it with a piece of her own.  He could feel her all around him now, her song echoing in his head like a poorly played violin.  He didn’t want to know what she had done.  He wanted to sink into the stone and forget about the world around him.  

  
  


Ken grimaced and leaned forward, pressing the fingers of his left hand to his new eye.  “I want it out,”  he said flatly and started to press his nails into the skin.  

 

Kanou grabbed his hands and drew his head back up.  “Stop that!”  he stopped suddenly and let out a little laugh.  “ Do you really think you can just rip it out after it grew back your entire leg?”  Kanou reached down and roughly jabbed his thumb into the sensitive flesh of his foot.

 

Ken hissed through gritted teeth and looked down at his legs.  He flexed both of his knees and then ran his hands over his calves.  The newly grown leg.  That was when he felt something move beneath his skin.

 

He yelped and drew his hand away.  Kanou was at his side in a heart beat, his hands already resting on the new leg.  “What’s wrong?  Did it hurt?”  

 

Ken never needed to answer him.  Just as Kanou finished speaking an odd bulge rose from his skin.  Then the bulge elongated and started to move.  It looked for all the world like some kind of snake had crawled beneath the surface of Ken’s skin and was currently slithering over his muscles.  

 

Ken leaned over the edge of the stone table and was sick.  He could feel the think crawling up his leg.  Kanou pushed him flat and tore open his shirt so that he could better watch the lump slither over his hips and across his abdomen.  

 

The thing circled once around his spine before coiling itself around Ken’s stomach.  The raised ridge of skin disappeared, but Ken could still feel what that thing was coiling around his insides.

 

For a long while he could only rest back against the stone slab and pant in terror.  Kanou was watching him with a clinical interest as he tried to rein in his fears.   

 

Ken’s eyes swung up to the obsidian black ceiling.  He forced his breathing to slow.  He needed to prioritze and assess.  There was absolutely nothing he could do about the thing that had coiled around his gut.  All he knew is that they all needed to get away from the odd woman who had called him here in the first place. If he couldn’t do that then at the very least he needed to make sure she wouldn’t hurt the other men who had arrived on the island with him.

 

If anything happened to them it would be all his fault.  If only he had been stronger he could have resisted her call.  Hide had already suffered because of his weakness.

 

“Hide,” he begged.  “What happened to Hide?”

 

Kanou looked away.  “He is still alive.”

 

“I want to see him,”  he said as he swung his legs off the stone table he was lying on.    He set his feet on the floor and steadied himself, fighting back the nauseating sensations raging through him.  Kanou wordlessly helped him to stand and supported him until he was able to find his balance.  

 

“The others are this way,” Kanou said softly and guided him out of the room.

 

They were in some kind of palace or maybe a temple. Everything was made of night black stone that seemed to absorbed all the light around it.  There was no one in the halls.  The little light there was came from simple wooden torches set in brackets against the walls.

 

Sometimes they would pass pedestals with great sculptures sitting on them, or scenes carved into the great walls of the palace.  All of the pieces of art they passed depicted grotesque scenes of human suffering.  They reminded Ken of his pastors passionate description of the pains suffered in hell; A woman died in childbirth while a demon crouched over her and picked at her bloated stomach, a man writed on a pike jutting through his abdomen, children played around a maypole made of bones and intestines.  

 

When the ocean wind blew through the temple just right and set the torches flickering he could swear that the creatures in the paintings were moaning and writhing in agony.

 

Finally, they came to a magnificent throne room.  They maneuvered their way through a forest of pillars towards the woman who had brought them here.  She was draped over her long throne watching them approach her.  Rising from the back of her throne was a massive owl sculpture carved from the same black stone as the rest of the palace.  The sculpture watched over their approach with its wings extended as if it were about to take flight.

 

A sharp pain assaulted Ken’s skull  and he felt the strange eye in his forehead pulse in recognition.   His head throbbed and the world tilted beneath his feet. He distantly felt Kanou’s hands tighten around his arms.  Then the moment passed and Kanou released him.

 

Hide was sitting at the foot of the throne. He seemed impossibly small as he sat in the shadow of the owls wings.   The impossible optimism that Ken had held on to throughout the war had been wiped from Hide’s expression. It was downright unnerving to see him so quiet and still.  Ken took a step towards his friend and stopped short.   Ken could see a half form limbed sprouting from Hide’s stump.  It was impossible to say what the arm would look like when it finished growing.  It didn’t look like any human limb Ken had ever seen.

 

He was so focused on his friend that he didn’t notice Yamori walk into the throne room.  The orderly took a spot next to the throne and stood at attention.  Unlike Hide he seemed alert and aware of what was going on around him.  There was a smugness to his expression that set Ken’s teeth on edge.

 

“You’re awake,”  the woman said as she  slipped off the stone throne with a serpents grace.  Ken tensed as she approached.   Ken shuddered like a spooked horse as she ran a cool hand over his cheek.  She peered into his face as if inspecting her handiwork and smiled.  She tilted her head back towards the couch.  “Come and sit.  We were just talking about you.”

 

Through it all Hide remained silent and still.  Ken’s eyes swept over his still friend  as the woman guided him to the couch and dismissed Kanou. “What did you do to him?”  Ken whispered.

 

The woman frowned and dug her nails into his skin.  “I fixed him.  I made it so he could stay with us.  It’s what you wanted.”

 

Ken settled and pulled away from the woman.  “I didn’t want this!”

 

She pushed him to sit and then settled next to him on the throne.  She looked genuinely puzzled by his reaction.  “Of course you did.  If you didn’t want this I wouldn’t have been able to come to you in the first place.  This island only appears to those who wish to see it.  That is how its power works.  You called to me.”

 

Ken slumped bonelessly against the seat.   He had felt the call, had reached out for her in his half delirious state.  He looked over at his friend.  Hide staring at him with a drunken smile plastered on to his face.  A wave of nausea and self loathing rolled through Ken’s stomach. 

 

“What about him?  Will be be all right?”

 

The woman shrugged.  “ He should be fine eventually.  You know, you are being very rude, you haven’t even asked me my name yet.”  

 

Ken’s head swung around in surprise, his mouth agape.  There was something irritated, almost jealous dancing in her eyes.  He closed his mouth with an audible click.  “Who are you?”  he asked finally.

 

She seemed satisifed with that.  “My name is Sen and I am the Queen of this island.”

 

Ken scrambled for what to say next.  The very real sense of danger was almost overpowering.  This woman, whoever she was, could crush them all with a thought if she wanted to.  All it would take is one wrong word from him.

 

“Oh don’t be like that,” she interrupted his thoughts.  “Why would I want to hurt you after all the trouble I went through to make you.  None of my other children turned out so well.”  Her hand was back on his face, her fingers tracing the outline of his nose, lips, and ears.  “It’s been so long since I’ve had someone to talk to.”

 

Ken forced himself to relax.  “You can read my mind?”

 

She nodded and grinned.  “You have a piece of me and I have a piece of you.”

 

“And him?” He gestured toward Hide.

 

“A piece of myself diluted and passed through another creature.  I fed that pet some of my blood.”

 

“The eye . . .” he trailed off as he considered the possibilities.

 

“It’s the key,” Sen agreed. “You should feel honored.  I’ve never given an eye to anyone before.”

 

Ken’s head swung up and he looked her in the face for the first time.  She was watching him knowingly with the eye she had taken from him.  “Why me? Why not change the two of them as well?”  

  
  


“Your special and as for the other two, ”  She pressed closer to Ken, “they can help us more if I don’t change him.  This little war has brough so many interesting things to my island, but so far you are my favorite.  Won’t you come and lead my army?”

  
  


Sen was looking up at him with dark, unreadable eyes.  Her elfin features were smooth and glowing with amusement.  He could feel her all around him, in the stone, in the air, in the crackle of the fire in the torch brackets.  She was ancient.

 

She reminded him of a terrible goddess netherworld goddess; one who oversaw the fate of the damned and had been driven to depravity by the sheer amount of sin she had absorbed from those cursed souls.   He wondered just how long she had been stuck on this island and felt a sudden surge of pity for her.  

 

“Where is your army?”  He finally asked.

 

“In the caves.  They wait and fight amongst themselves until I call them. They are growing strong.  And now I am learning about this new type of warfare.  It’s all so fascinating.  ”

 

“What exactly do you want to do?”  Ken braced himself, knowing that he wasn’t going to like the answer.  

  
“I want to spread a little chaos.  Won’t that be fun?”  Sen said with a grin.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ken's dreams of the war are partly taken from the book "All Quiet on the Western Front." I highly recommend it if you haven't read it yet. This is one of those rare books that just completely overwhelmed me and there were a few times I had to put it down to stop and think about what I had just read. 
> 
> Ken's mother and sister- The Influenza Epidemic began in the spring of 1918 and killed some 50 million people before it ran its course. WWI ended in Nov. of 1918. We'll say this story is happening anywhere between October and the end of December of 1918.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hide plays dead and learns a thing or two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone. Here is the next chapter. Enjoy.
> 
> No historical notes this time.

III.

 

The smell of blood woke Hide from his stupor.

 

The former soldier had spent enough time on the battlefield and in the overcrowded hospital wards to recognize that scent instinctively.  What troubled him the most was that the smell was everywhere around him, clinging to the inside of his nostrils like a lover.  

 

Hide opened his eyes.  He was sitting upright, his body propped against a wooden crate.  He felt strangely empty as if someone had wrung him out like an old dishrag.   So he fought against the lethargy slumping through his limbs.   His right arm was throbbing with pain.  Hide groaned softly and reached out with his left hand to massage away the ache he was feeling. The movement was unexpectedly difficult, like he was swimming in a vat of molasses.  

 

Hide startled at the unexpected sensation of his fingers sinking into his skin.  He looked down at his arm and tried to scream.  All that came out was a dry, hoarse croak.  His right arm wasn’t an arm.  It was a rubbery, scaly growth that oozed from his stump. The limb was speckled with twitching mouths and blinking eyes.  

 

For a moment he thought that this had to be a dream.  There was no way the monstrosity growing from his stump could be real.  The eyes in his arm twitched spasmodically and rolled to stare at him.  Hide choked and heaved; his body caught between its need to be sick and its need to pass out.

 

Before he could succumb completely to panic and confusion his memory snapped back in to place.   The beach, Ken, Sen, and Kanou; he had watched all of it without having the power to understand what was happening around him.  Those events had passed through him like the images of a disjointed dream.  

 

His head was spinning as he sorted through those gray patches of memories.  He had been in the throne room with Ken and Sen.  He had no idea where he was now or how he had come to be there.

 

A jolt of fear shot through him when he realized that he had no idea where Ken was.

 

“Amazing,” a familiar voice interrupted his thoughts. He looked up to see Kanou and Yamori hovering around a black stone altar.  There was a still figure tied to the altar. Hide’s view was blocked by Kanou’s broad back, but the form on the altar looked human.  Then he realized just where the scent of blood was coming from.

 

“Look here,” Kanou cried out again.  He moved to the edge of the altar and Hide saw more of the beast than he wanted to.  Kanou had cracked open the creatures  chest left  its organs exposed for his examination.

 

Just as Kanou was stepping back large red tentacles erupted from the creatures chest cavity.  They fanned out and grabbed the organs that Kanou had been inspecting.  They wound around each of thee creatures organs and pulled them back into the eviscerated body.  Hide could hear the tentacles working furiously as they knit the creatures chest back together.  In a few minutes the creature drew a wheezing breath and started to scream.

 

Yamori reacted quickly and stabbed the creature through the chest with a machete.  “It looks like it stays still if you don’t take the blade out,” he commented.  “I can’t stand that damn noise.”

 

Kanou nodded absently.  “I saw something that might be similar to those red tentacles when I first examined Mr. Kaneki.  I wonder if the healing mechanism works the same way for him?”

 

Yamori snorted.  “Does it matter?  Do you honestly think we will ever get the chance to find out?  We’re lucky Sen let’s us play with these things.”

 

“Time will tell.  Can you really say you would rather be anywhere else?”

 

Yamori gave the doctor a sick grin.  “Isn’t it the same for you?  Weren’t you getting tired of keeping your work a secret before?”

 

Kanou shrugged.  “There is no better place to study the limits of the human body than a battlefield.  Mr. Kaneki was a mediocre subject at best.  Sen has turned him into a truly fascinating creature.”

 

Hide stopped breathing for a moment.  

 

“Have you spoken to him?”  Yamori asked as he wiped blood off his hands.

 

Hide breathed deeply and forced himself to relax.  Kanou and Yamori weren’t paying any attention to him right now and he wanted to keep it that way.  His spotty memories of what had happened since they landed on the island weren’t enough to tell what was going on.  He needed more information and it seemed to him that the other two men would be a lot more careless with their talk if they still believed he was unable to understand them.  

 

“No since he first woke up.  Sen likes to keep him close.  It’s ashame.  I want to study him more than any of the other creatures on this island.  He may hold the key to understanding how we can harness the healing powers of the flesh as well as its effects on the mind.”

 

“I want to know more about that woman,”  Yamori said gruffly.  

 

“Of course you do.  She indulges you and your sick little hobbies.”

 

Yamori snorted like a bull.  “Hypocrite.”

 

Kanou tilted his head back and laughed.  “True enough my friend. It’s been a long and mutually beneficial partnership.  Still,  You’ve seen whats in those caves.  Do you have any idea how long she has been doing this?”

 

“A long, long time.  I’ve been waiting so long for the right one to come to me,”  Sen’s voice rose from the darkness.  Yamori and Kanou both jumped a little at the sound of her intrustion.  

 

She was gliding down a set of wide stone steps with her man-dog companion trailing behind her.  She was wearing a fine silk robe that had been the height of fashion a century ago.  Kanou looked up from the corpse as she entered the room.  

 

“You mentioned something like that before,” Kanou prompted.

 

Hide watched Sen pace around the circular room.  Her long robe trailed carelessly through the blood on the floor as she walked around the altar.  To Hide it looked like Kanou and Yamori had converted the room into a temporary field hospital.  It was filled with a random assortment of tables, chairs, and sea chests.  Some of the equipment he recognized from his lengthy stay in the hospital.  Every piece of furniture looked waterlogged and ancient.  Hide nearly laughed when he realized what he was seeing; a sacrificial chamber converted to storage room and then converted again into a doctors office.

 

Sen completed her circut and walked to the center of the room to lean against the stone altar.  “I gather the ones who leave the land and have no home to return to.  They drift.  Their bitterness and anger grows until it starts to flow out of them.  The ocean carries the scent to me and I come for them.”

 

“Just like a shark,”Yamori said with a predatory grin.

 

Sen leaned forward until her face was inches from Kanou’s.  “I bring them here because they want to come with me.  I change them into what they truly want to be.”

 

“So Mr. Kaneki . . .”

 

“He’s just like me.”   Sen looked pointedly at Hide.  It took everything in him to remain limp and unaffected under that gaze.

  
  


She turned back to the doctor.  “Have you learned anything from all this?”  She gestured to the gore that littered the ground, “Or should I summon another of my disappointments?”

 

Kanou’s face brightened.  “I have been collecting some fascinating data from these creatures.  I believe I have found a way to strengthen your army.”

 

“Show me.”

 

The doctor slit the recently dead creature and without a word reached back in to the gaping wound.  Hide could hear the doctor rummaging through the creatures organs for a moment.  Sen was bending close as he explained his findings to her.

 

Hide wasn’t listening.  His mind was too busy going over the things he had learned from Yamori and Kanou’s conversation.  It couldn’t be true, but there was no reason they would be lying either.  They had been experimenting on the soldiers they were supposed to be treating.  He wondered what they had done to Ken or if they had done anything to him during their stay in the hospital.  

 

_ I see you little weasel. _  Sen’s smug voice echoed in his head.

 

At first Hide doubted that what he heard was real.  Then the voice continued to speak.   _ You are surprisingly strong minded little one.  I wonder. Should I play with you some more or should I put you back to sleep? _

 

Hide shuddered. As horrible as the scene before him was he did not want to be unaware of his surroundings given the current company.  

 

_ Very well.  Just remember that I gave you a choice. _

 

“Here,” Kanou pulled something out of the things chest cavity with both hands. He laid it on the altar next to the limp body.  “This tiny sack.  I believe this may be part of it.”  The thing he had removed from the creatures body was covered by a thin, translucent membrane.  Hide could see something quivering inside the sack.

 

“What is it?”  the woman asked.

 

“I believe it is an organ of some kind.  There is nothing like this in the human body.  And when I cut it open . . .”

 

Hide dared to look up as the doctor sliced through the dark membrane of the sack.  The flesh fell open and four long red tentacles flopped out.  

 

“This sack is in every one of the creatures I have examined.  It varies in size and shape, but one thing is certain.  When it is removed your soldiers die.”

 

The woman’s unhappiness stabbed through Hide’s brain.  “You said you would find a way to make my army stronger, not kill it off.”

 

Kanou took a step back.  “Understanding what this is will be part of making your army stronger.  I don’t have the equipment here, but if I could determine exactly what this is and what it is made of It will help me keep my promise.”

 

“But you would need to examine more of my pets,” the woman said.   _ Tell me weasel, what if I summoned your friend down here and commanded him to lay on this table while the doctor cut him apart.  Would you continue to lay there doing nothing? _

  
  


Cold fear churned in Hide’s gut.  _  I would do everything in my power to stop you. _  He thought back as fiercely as he could manage.  He felt like a quivering lipped child when he communicated with her.

 

_ Ahhh so that is what it takes for you to speak.  You needn’t worry.  I wouldn’t allow my general to be harmed in that way and so long as he needs you I will need you. _

 

“Until I have access to the right equipment,” the doctor agreed.  

 

_ Tell me, what do you think weasel.  Can I trust him? _

 

Hide’s mind raced for a moment at the question.  He considered not answering her at all until he realized that she could just pull the information from his head if she really wanted to. There was nothing to gain by resisting her, but he might be able to prove himself useful if he obeyed. It might buy him enough time to figure out how to escape.    _ Kanou won’t do anything that will endanger his own life, at the same time, he will be looking for a way to draw a personal advantage from this.  You can trust him so long as he is afraid of you or if you have something he wants. _

  
  


She laughed inside his head.   _ This is going to be fun.  I am glad I didn’t put you back to sleep.  Don’t worry, I won’t tell them your secret.  Stay quiet little weasel.  It makes the game more entertaining. _

 

Hide felt Sen leave his mind and the moment she did Ken appeared in the stairway.  Hide thought it had been hard to keep still when he saw Sen, it was even harder when he saw Ken.  His old friend was walking, his leg had apparently grown back and his face was smooth and unblemished. 

 

Hide looked deeper.  Ken was too pale and there were dark circles under his eyes.  If he knew is friend at all he would guess that Ken had been spending his time over thinking  situation and finding creative new ways to blame himself for Sen’s actions.  Hide hoped that Sen hadn’t told him how she had found them.  

 

“Sen, I can’t find Hide,”  there was desperation in Ken’s voice and it filled him with pride and hope.  No one spoke as Ken scanned the room.  It was nearly impossible to hold still and wait for Ken to find him.

 

All the while Hide couldn’t quiet repress the dread crawling through him.  Ken seemed far too familiar and comfortable with the gruesome scene.  Ken may have become hardened to the sight of blood and gore, but he had never been the kind of person who would be able to ignore torture.

 

Ken finally found him and Hide watched as his friends lips thinned into a frown.  He strode purposefully over the bloodied floors towards Hide.  “I thought I said that you should stay away from Hide.”  There was something dark and possessive in Ken’s voice that Hide had never heard before.

“Forgive me, he wondered in here while we were working,”  Kanou said gently.

 

“You should have come to get me.  I don’t want either any of you anywhere near him.”

 

Then Ken knelt in front of Hide and peered in his face.  Hide exhaled softly as Ken tilted his head up and looked into his face.  The other man’s palms were cool against his cheeks and he looked so very tired.  Hide couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something very wrong with his friend.

  
For the first time he saw Ken’s left eye.  Sen’s smug pleasure resonated in his skull and Hide wondered just how much he had screwed things up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thoughts? Questions? Comments?
> 
> We are about halfway through what I have planned for this story. This was only planned as a 6 parter and I haven't had to deviate from my outline all that much.
> 
> I will be out of town next weekend so there will most likely be a delay in getting out the next chapter.
> 
> So question for this series and the people reading it- I have a few sidestories I would like to do and I don't have all the details of the "City" sequel planned. So is there anything you would like to see? Leave it in the comments or you can submit to my ask box on tumblr-its optimustaud.
> 
> Thanks everyone who stopped by to read!


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ken and Hide have a conversation. Then everything goes to hell.

IV.

 

“Hide, how are you doing today?” Ken asked his friend each morning.

 

Hide would turn towards his voice and  smile breezily at Ken.  

 

“That’s good,” Ken would say with a forced smile.  He would squeeze Hide’s shoulder and force himself to examine  the strange limb extending from Hide’s left side. It had finished growing during their first night on the island.   

 

Ken always did his best not to show his disgust.  He would do his best to wrap the limb, but the mouths growing on it had wailed in complaint when he tried.  The noise had disturbed him so much Ken had cut off the bandages and never tried to wrap the arm again.  

 

Hide had taken to wondering around Sen’s temple in the afternoons.  Ken had done his best to keep an eye on him, but the other man always managed to slip away.  It terrified Ken.  Anything could happen to Hide in the state he was in; Hide could fall and break his neck on the stairs, Kanou could pull him in to his lab for dissection, one of Sen’s creatures could attack him.  

 

Each time Hide disappeared Ken would find him.  He would swallow his anxiety and ask, “Did you get lonely?”

 

Hide wouldn’t respond at all.  Ken would carry on the conversation by himself.

 

“I know, I know.  Rabbits can die when they get lonely.  Don’t worry, I don’t plan on leaving you.  If you wanted to explore you could have invited me along.”

 

Hide would smile and then reach out to gently pat Ken’s chest.  His palm would always brush against the odd stone pendant Sen had given him on his first day on the island.

 

“Sounds like a plan.  It’ll be just like old times won’t it?”  

 

The only time Ken felt like himself anymore was when Hide was nearby.  The war and the news of his families death had sapped him dry.  He spent most of his days trying to avoid thinking about the bleak future that stretched out in front of him.  With his mother and sister dead he had no left to protect back home.  Hide had been the only thing anchoring him to reality for so long Ken didn’t know what he would do if his friend died.

 

He hated himself all the more when he realized how much he had come to depend on Hide’s strength.  Hide needed him now and he could barely hold it together when he thought that Hide might be like this for the rest of his life.  He would have given anything to hear Hide tell one of his stupid jokes one more time.

 

Strangely enough Sen had come to fill the gap left by Hide’s silences.  She had been equal measures of compassionate and ruthless in her dealings with him.  She had promised to heal Hide and had given him a goal to work towards.  The army they were building would be glorious and once it was complete they were going to save the world.

 

Ken hadn’t trusted her at first, but the more he listened to her talk the more sense her words made.

 

_ The world is wrong and it must be cleansed.  And you, my brave soldier, are going to help me.  There is nothing wrong in what we are doing.  This is only a rebirth. _

 

It was hard to resist that line of thinking, not when he had seen what the war had caused, what it would continue to cause.  Before he had been drafted he had had an unshakeable faith in the innate goodness of humanity, but now he could not find that faith in himself.  Men were dangerous animals that wasted their lives eating and fucking, and fighting over territory.  

 

In the end he knew that he was no different.

 

He had grown used to his new eye some time ago.  He liked to think of it as a seed that had been planted inside his head.  Sometimes he could feel Sen’s strange flesh moving beneath his skin and he was certain that Sen was growing something inside of him.  He distantly remembered a time when that thought had frightened him.  Now he drew comfort from it.  It meant that he would never truly be alone again.

 

Ken was starting to get a handle on the odd mental connection he now shared with Sen and by extension all those she had turned.  He could feel the hungry creatures crowded in the caves below the city.  They were growing restless and impatient as they sensed their masters excitement.  He could not shake the feeling that something big was going to happen very soon.

 

On the morning of the fifth day they had been Sen’s guests Hide disappeared.  Ken eventually found him in the underground compartment Kanou had claimed as his lab.  He had barely seen the doctor and his assistant since their arrival.  He had been so concerned with Hide’s well being and with Sen’s whisperings that he hadn’t given any thought as to what the doctor might have been doing.

 

Ken had been furious when he found Hide sprawled amongst the gore.  When he put his hands on Hide’s cheeks he felt the other man flinch beneath his touch.  Hide’s dark pupils widened and he inhaled sharply.  That was when Ken knew that something had changed in his friend.  He pushed back the sudden surge of hope.  

 

Such a small reaction from Hide might not mean anything, but the former soldier  would take what he could get.  Ken’s frustration and rage grew with each passing hour.  The very island itself seemed to be encouraging it.  He longed for something other than the sight of black stone and blue-grey ocean waves.

 

All of Ken’s suspicions were confirmed when he helped Hide off the floor and guided him from the doctor’s chamber.  His friend was taking steady, confident steps so unlike the odd shuffling gait he had been using for the past three days.

 

“Sorry I left you alone with them,” Ken apologized as they ascended the staircase. “I didn’t notice when you wondered off this time.  I really should have been paying more attention.”  

 

There was no response from the other man so Ken tried again.

 

“We’ll the truth is Hide, I got distracted by a book,”  Hide stumbled and Ken reached out to catch him.  The other mans alien arm reached up and wrapped around his wrist as Ken helped him up.  “Yeah, I know.  Stupid of me.  But really, the library she has is amazing.”

 

And it was.  Old books, new books, books in every language imaginable.  Ken could have spent the rest of his life in the stacks.  

 

Ken swore that he could hear Hide snort softly in amusement. Ken’s book addiction had been no secret.  When they were growing up the closest thing they had to a library was the traveling salesmen who would visit town once a month.  Ken could remember sitting by the side of the dirt road waiting for the man and his collection of penny dreadfuls to arrive.  He had cut his teeth on the bible and the handful of religious texts their pastor kept on hand, but he had a secret love for the impossible tales of murder and adventure he read in those books.  Ken had lived for those novels.  

 

Hide’s tentacle wrapped gently around Ken’s wrist and squeezed.  Ken looked up into Hide’s knowing eyes.  For a moment they communicated with each other in the silent way that is only possible between two old friends.  Ken soared.  He understood now.  Hide was waiting to speak to him when he was sure that they were alone.

 

“Right now I just want to head back down to the beach.  I think I’ve been cooped up for too long. Think you can make it?”  Ken looked over at his friend.  Hide was staring at him intently, something stern and almost desperate reflecting in his eyes.  The tentacle around Ken’s wrist tightened again.  

 

If there was one thing Ken had learned in all the time he had spent with Sen it was that her mental voice was harder to hear the further he was from her.  The best place to have a private conversation was as far from the city as he could get.

 

* * *

 

  
  


Sen’s creatures were watching them from the shadows of the buildings as they moved through the city.  Ken ignored them.  They were more active after sunset and weren’t that much of a threat right now.  Hide kept pace with him without any prompting or guidance.  His friend refused to make eye contact with him as they moved through the city.

 

Normally Ken would have been captivated by the odd buildings that seemed to grow from the black stone of the island.  He would have stopped to examine the owl statues and the worn carvings that decorated the city.  For now he was too overcome with anxiety and Hide’s odd behavior.  He started to second guess himself; maybe he had only imagined what he saw in Hide’s eyes earlier, or maybe Hide was angry with him.  After all, it was his fault they had ended up on this island in the first place.  If he had been stronger Hide would never have had to eat the flesh of that strange creature on the beach.

 

It would have been better if he had died in the explosion that took his leg and his face.  At least then Hide would have been spared from the horrors of the island.  

 

Finally, they arrived on the beach.  Ken paused and inhaled the tang of the ocean air. He had no idea what was going to happen next and he wasn’t sure that he could face it.  He had already been shattered and was barely holding the broken pieces of his life in place.  If Hide rejected him now he wasn’t sure what he would do.

 

He felt a warm, human hand grasp his shoulder and turn him.  Hide’s lips were trembling a little and his eyes were bright and wet.  Then Hide pulled him into an embrace.  Ken felt that odd tentacle slither across his back to wrap firmly around his torso.

 

Ken wrapped his arms around Hide.  A brief moment passed before Hide resolutely slapped him twice between the shoulder blades and they released each other.  Nothing more needed to be said.  They were both alive, they could both fight.  Together they would figure out how to get off this island.

 

In that moment Ken knew that he had been a fool for ever doubting his friend.  They settled their backs against the largest boulder on the stony beach and sat shoulder to shoulder.  They watched the ocean waves in silence doing nothing more than savoring each others company.

 

“How long?” Ken asked after a bit.

 

“I’m not sure.  Maybe about an hour or so before you walked in on us,”  Hide shifted to face him.  “We have a real problem on our hands.”  Ken listened as his friend recounted the conversation he had overheard.  When Hide finished speaking he looked up to Ken expectantly.

 

“I know,” Ken replied, not knowing what else to say.  “Sen told me all of it; what she plans to do and why she kept Kanou alive.”

 

Hide’s brow furrowed and he got the impression that he had said the wrong thing.  “Okay,” Hide said slowly.  Ken could tell he was trying not to frown.  “And you agree with what she wants to do?  You want to help her?”

 

The question jerked at something deep inside Ken’s skull.  He couldn’t say what it was but it made him feel uncomfortable.  He looked down at his hands as he considered Hide’s words.  “I do.  She chose me and I think I can help her.”

 

Ken looked up and watched Hide’s face.  His friend’s eyes were dark with worry and anger.  When Hide caught Ken staring the look on his face melted away and he smiled brightly.  “That is just like you isn’t it?  You never could say no to someone who asked for your help.  Well buddy, if this is what you’ve decided to do then I will tag along too.”

 

A familiar warmth gathered in Ken’s chest and the nagging something in his head swelled to a dull throb.  Hide was his home and so long as the other man lived he would always have a place to return.  He wondered how he had forgotten something so obvious.   “Thank you Hide,” Ken said softly.

 

“So what’s the plan?”  His friend asked asked cheerfully.

 

“We listen to Sen,”  the ache in Ken’s head started to grow.

 

“It does seem like she has been planning this for awhile.  What does she want exactly?”

 

“A new world.  One wiped clean of the mistakes of the old.”

 

Hide leaned back against the rock and cradled his head in his hand. “Sounds pretty good doesn’t it.  I mean, no more war, no more disease.  Everyone can just live their lives happily.”

 

“Yeah,” Ken whispered.  

 

“But Ken,”  Hide turned to face him.  “Is that really all right?  I mean, you’ve seen this island.  What Sen has made of it.  Do you really think that someone who could create this kind of place really wants the kind of world you are talking about?”

 

“I . . .” a wave of confusion washed over Ken.  The throbbing in his head rose to an insistent pounding that nearly drowned out his friend’s voice.  “It’s just a training ground.  For her army.  To make them strong.”  Ken stuttered out the excuse.  Sen had told him this a hundred times and it had made sense every time she had said it.  So why now did it feel so wrong?

 

“And the army Ken.  Those creatures used to be human.  You’ve seen what she has done to them.”

 

“They were the damned,”  Ken parrotted.  “She took them in, gave them purpose . . .”

 

“Like she did with me,” Hide pressed.  “Like she did to you.”

 

Ken’s skull felt like it was going to split open.  “Yes . . .No, I don’t,”  Ken stuttered.  He could not deny that he was amon the damned, but it was impossible for him to believe that Hide would be included among them.  It was getting harder and harder to think between the pounding in his head and Hide’s odd line of questioning.

 

Ken could feel one calloused hand on his shoulder.  “Hey buddy, are you all right?  Is everything okay?  Are you hurt somewhere?”

 

Ken opened his mouth to answer and choked, completely overcome by the pain he was experiencing.  He pushed to his feet and stumbled away from Hide.  He was filled with the irrational thought that if he could get away from the other man’s words the pain would end.

 

Something inside him tore through the flesh at the small of his back and he howled like a dying dog.  He could see Hide standing in front of him.  The other man’s lips were moving and his hand was raised in a position of surrender.  Ken could not hear him through the pain that was filling every cell in his body.

 

And somewhere Sen was speaking to him, her voice wry and amused.   _ My poor little pet.  You failed my test.  It looks like I will have to take more drastic measures. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks once again for reading. So let me know what you think.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hide and Ken have a bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I went to work and all my meetings for the day got canceled. I did some bench work and cleaned the lab. Then I did some fic writing. Honestly it was this story or read the CFR. It wasn't a hard choice. So you lovely people will be getting this chapter much earlier than expected. 
> 
> So has anyone here ever played Eternal Darkness for the gamecube? That game is honestly the only reason I still own a gamecube.
> 
> Enjoy!

V.

 

Hide watched in horror as Ken arched backwards and screamed.  Four tentacles burst from the small of Ken’s back and engulfed his entire body.  As Ken writhed against the tentacles Hide could hear the echo of Sen’s laughter.   _ Oh my dear little weasel, what will you do now I wonder?   _

 

Hide could honestly say that he had no idea.   Hide was momentarily stunned still torn between the desire to help his friend and the instinct to run.  That was the most frustrating thing about this island.  Hide was ready to fight, but he didn’t know how.  Nothing in any of his experiences had prepared him for Sen and her terrible power.

 

_ I’ve had such wonderful plans for my new pet.  And I was thinking what would be the best way to show him who truly holds his leash. _

 

Ken had stopped screaming or rather Hide could no longer hear Ken screaming.  The cocoon of tentacles that had formed around his body was starting to swell and pulse.  Something was pushing its way out of the fleshy prison.

 

_ It’s such a shame little weasel.  I truly did like you.  I would have been willing to share. _

 

Hide froze.  Fear,  worse than anything he had experienced during the war churned in his gut.  He could not tear his eyes away from the strange ‘egg’ that was hatching in front of him.  

 

_ I love games little weasel.  Shall we play a game? _

 

The shell of the egg split open and bulbous red head slipped through.  The creature struggled through the slimy mess of the cocoon one jointed segment at a time.  Its scurrying legs clicked against the stone as it levered itself free of its egg.  

 

He couldn’t look away as the egg crumbled and the monster finally pulled free.  A massive centipede stood before him.

 

Hide stepped back.  The mouths on his arm began to screech with glee.  He clamped his hand at the place where his flesh connected to the alien tentacle as the appendage wailed on.  He lost control of the limb as it whipped around him excitedly.  He could feel the eyes on the tentacle shifting from side to side within the alien flesh.  

 

The centipede reared up, its antennae flickering back and forth in curiosity.  

 

“What kind of game?” Hide asked the empty air.

 

_ A game of sacrifice.   _

 

Hide swallowed, his throat grown too dry to speak.  “How do I play?”  His tentacle arm was swishing back and forth like a cat’s tail.  The mouths were babbling to themselves, each one speaking in a different voice.

_ Run, or die. _

 

Hide swore.  He understood that no matter which one he chose Sen would win.  He had seen for himself the kind of hold she had over Ken.  If he ran he would be abandoning his friend to become her puppet and if he allowed this perversion to kill him it would lead to exactly the same ending.  

 

Then there was no more time to stop and think about what was going to happen because the centipede was attacking.  The creature threw itself at Hide hissing wildly.  Without thinking, instincts honed by a year of war, he dodged to the left of the creature.  He tucked into a roll to protect himself from the jagged rocks littering the beach.  

 

Behind him he heard a shattering impact and he scrambled to get to his feet.  He dared to look back.  

 

The centipede was slumped amongst the remains of the boulder Hide had been leaning against only a moment ago.  It’s skull had been smashed by the force of the impact and Hide could see the fine tentacles sprouting from the injury.  He knew he had only moments to make a decision before the creature recovered completely.

 

He ran.  In this situation there was nothing else he could do.  In the back of his mind he could hear Sen’s amused laughter.  

 

_ Scurry, scurry my little weasel.  If you can find your little boat I might just let you leave. _

 

Hide smiled grimly to himself.  He had no doubt she would let him leave.  Nothing would shatter Ken’s already wavering faith in humanity more than if his best friend abandoned him now.  Ken would be her creature completely.

 

Hide had every intention of saving Ken even if that meant he had to die.  He only had to figure out how.

 

_ You are so sweet my little weasel.  So determined.  I wonder how long that will last? _

 

Hide said nothing and kept running.  He could hear the frantic clacking of insect legs growing louder behind him.  Hide ground his heels into the dirt and pushed forward.  He was determined to fight.  He just needed something to fight with.

 

That was when he saw the lifeboat still resting against the shore.  With the last bit of energy in him he raced forward hoping that there was something on board that he could use.  The truth was he had no idea if the others had scavenged the boat for supplies during the days he had been out of action, but he was never one to give up hope so easily.

 

Hide hit the prow without slowing and tumbled into the boat.  He nearly landed on a combat knife which he gripped between his teeth.  He rifled through the supplies left on the boat tossing anything he could not use to defend himself onto the beach.  Finally he found the lifeboats flare gun.   He had just found the single flare left in their supplies when the lifeboat exploded around him.  Hide cried out as his body was tossed skywards.  He landed with a heavy thud that knocked the remaining breath out of him. The landing set his world spinning and scattered his weapons across the beach.

 

He could feel Sen’s triumph and he could hear the chattering voices coming from his arm howling in delight.  

 

_ Looks like I win little weasel.  What a shame.  I thought you would be more fun.   _

 

The centipede rose before him, filling his entire line of sight.   The sensation of the creatures warm mouth engulfing his ankles brought him back to full awareness.  He reached out blindly searching for any of the weapons he had scaveneged from the lifeboat..  Just as his fingers closed around the handle of the knife he felt his body being sucked in to the creatures mouth.  

 

Fear raced through Hide and he leaned forward trying desperately to drive the blade of the knife through the creatures skull.  It was as effective as spitting on a wildfire.  With one powerful inhalation the centipede sucked the rest of his body into its mouth.

 

Hide was immediately engulfed in darkness and wet flesh. He twisted and lashed out with the knife trying desperately to gain some leverage.  He sliced desperately at the exposed flesh as he was forced further down the monsters gullet.  

 

And all Hide could think was that  after all he had survived he was going to die like this. He was going to be eaten by a giant centipede that had once been his best friend.  If he was laughing now it was because the situation was absurd and not because he was terrified.

 

Hide laughed until tears started to pour from his eyes.  He tilted his head back and drew in a deep breath of the fetid air.  “Ken Kaneki you are a real son of a bitch you know that.  After all we’ve been through together and you fucking eat me.  What the hell man?  No wonder you don’t have any friends.”

 

Hide slid to a sudden stop as the muscles around him went completely still.  Then the flesh supporting his back seemed to disappear and he was released into a dark void.  He  tumbled into a free fall. He had no idea how long he fell.  He could not see anything but darkness when he opened his eyes.  He could not hear anything except the sound of his own voice when he called out into the dark.  He was alone falling through an endless dark.  

 

Hide was certain that this was death and he was falling in to hell.  

 

Then he landed with a sharp smack on a stony, sloped surface.  He yelped in surprise as he rolled down the slope onto a smooth, even floor.  

 

He lay for a moment panting and fighting back the terror and shock of what had just happened.  His whole body was shaking with a force he had never in his life experienced.  He curled and wrapped his arm around himself as he tried to control the trembling in his body.  

 

The arm Sen had given him was mercifully silent for now.

 

He didn’t know how long he laid there when he noticed the green light that was penetrating his eyelids.  He released a long breath and opened his eyes.  

 

He was laying in a room made of the same black stone as the island.  It was such an impossible sight that Hide stared stupidly wondering if maybe he had died or had been knocked unconscious after one of his many falls.  The room was circular and lit by the familiar line of green torches he had seen in Sen’s temple.  Right in the center of the room was an empty pool that still held some liquid.  In the center of the pool was a mosaic that looked like Sen’s red on black eye.

 

Hide heard movement from above him and when he looked up he saw the ceiling was a writhing mass of exposed, wet muscle.  There were disfugured red on black eyes blinking down at him and gaping, laughing mouths spasming soundlessly in the dark. 

 

Hide looked away and tried to suppress another round of frightened trembling.  He wanted nothing more than to leave this island and forget every single thing he had seen since he woke up in Kanou’s lab.

 

“Hi . . .de,”  a soft voice cut through his thoughts.

 

It was Ken’s voice.  Hide looked up following the sound of the voice.  He halfway expected it was one of the disembodied mouths messing with him.  What we saw was much worse.

 

“Hi. . .de, help,” his friend whispered.  Ken’s body was fused with the mass of flesh in the ceiling.  Hide honestly couldn’t tell where Ken began and the alien flesh ended.  “Help,”  came Ken’s plea in a pained whisper.  “I don’t wanna.”

 

“Okay, okay, buddy I am coming,”  Hide said in the most soothing voice he could manage.  He had no idea how he was supposed to get Ken down or if he even could get Ken down, but he would have done anything to ease the terror he heard in that voice.  

 

If this was death then it was certainly not what Hide had expected.  He still had no idea what was happening.  The only think he knew for certain was that he had to help his friend.

 

Hide tucked his knife in his waist band and moved to stand  beneath his friend.  He knew he would never be able to reach his friend  from his place on the ceiling.  “Ken, I need you to reach for me.  Can you try?”

 

“Can’t, stuck,”  Ken whined like a tired child.  He tugged against the muscle gently.  “Hurts,” he whimpered.

 

“I know, I know,” Hide soothed, “but I can’t do this without your help.  I need you to try.  Come on buddy, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life in this room.”

 

Ken tried to pull free again using more force against the fleshy restraint.  The trapped man’s left arm pulled free by an inch.  Hide watched as his friend’s face contorted with pain and determination.  Ken clenched his fist and pulled.  There was a harsh tearing sound as he ripped his left arm free.  Then he sagged against his restraints and sobbed in pain.  “Hide, please, please.  I can’t.”

 

It was hell watching his friend hurt himself, but Hide knew that to get him free he was going to have to hurt him even more.  He reached out and grabbed Ken’s hand.  He gave the other man’s fingers a quick squeeze.  “All right, okay Ken.  You did good.  You did real good.”

 

Ken sobbed and nodded as Hide praised him.  “Sorry Hide.  Hurts.”

 

“I know, I know.  But to get you free all the way you know what we have to do right.”

 

The grip on Hide’s  hand tightened for a minute and Ken nodded.  Hide pressed the knife into his friend’s free hand.  “Just get your other arm free with that and I can help with the rest, okay buddy?”

 

Ken looked like he was going to be sick.  Instead he nodded and set to work cutting his right arm free from the ceiling.  Hide watched as his friend twitched and shuddered in pain.  Ken was doing his best not to make a sound as he worked to cut his arm free.

  
  


Once Ken had freed his other arm he let the knife drop to the floor and panted raggedly.  He let both arms hang forward. Hide reached out, taking one wrist in his hand and wrapping his tentacle around the other.  He counted to thirty to give Ken time to brace himself.  “You ready?”

 

Ken looked down at him and gave him an uncertain smile.  “Ready.”

  
  


Hide slowly pulled Ken free wincing in sympathy every time Ken released a cry of pain.  With one final pull Hide ripped Ken free of the ceiling.  He stumbled back under his friends weight and when he looked up he saw nothing but cloudless, blue sky.  He could hear the ocean.

 

All around him he saw the broken remains of the giant centipede scattered across the beach.  Ken was sprawled on top of him.  

For a long time Hide could only lay back and breathe.  

 

Finally, Hide placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder and shook him gently.  He was careful not to touch the still healing skin on Ken’s back.  

 

Ken remained deeply unconscious.   “Well I’m with you buddy.  It’s nap time.  I just thing that we should probably find somewhere safer to get some shuteye.  Don’t suppose you could help me out a little ?”

 

Ken moaned, but didn’t wake.

 

“Fine I’ll do it myself.  I vote we could ditch this place and go find ourselves a nicer island.  Of course, that would be easier if someone hadn’t broken the damn boat.”

 

Hide sighed and rubbed some of the filth off his face with an equally filthy hand.  “Looks like its up to me.  Just know that when we get out of this you owe me lunch.  Possibly two lunches.  And I am definitely gonna hold you to that.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that is a good place to leave things up for now. So this story should be wrapping up in the next 1 or 2 chapters. 
> 
> Thoughts/comments/questions- feel free to leave them here or you can drop me a message on my tumblr.
> 
> The room Hide and Ken were in is something I plan to explain in the Eto sidestory. So you will just have to wait and see what I have planned until then. :)
> 
> I will be participating in camp NaNoWriMo this year and I am making it my project to finish this story, work on the sequel for 'City of Owls,' and start on side stories. I am planning on having most of this series done by the end of April and once its written I don't plan on adding more. So make your requests while you can.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A moment of rest

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A short update. This chapter got split in to two chapters for reasons that will be obvious by the end.
> 
> Things are quickly coming to an end.

VI.

 

Ken woke to the sound of Hide’s voice.  He let the soft rumble of his friends ramblings drift over him as he tried to clear his foggy senses.  He smiled a little as he listened.  He was familiar with Hide’s habit of talking to himself.  His friend had never tolerated long silences very well.

 

“Hey, Are you pretending to be asleep so you can leave me with all the work?”  

 

A toe jabbed his ribs and Ken huffed like an indignant horse. He yawned and then gasped when he moved to sit.  His back was aching like he had suffered a bad sunburn.  Ken opened his eyes and looked at Hide who was crouched by his head watching him.  “What happened?” 

 

Hide was silent for a moment before he laughed and then scratched his head.  “You don’t remember?  We got attacked.  You hit your head pretty hard on a rock.”

 

“Attacked?  By what?”  Ken grunted as he rolled into a sitting position.

 

“Those things,” Hide waved dismissively.  “I think you scared them off or something.”

 

Ken grunted. Hide was being evasive.  He would have to ask Hide what had really happened later.  Right then he was too tired.  “How long was I out?”

 

“A few hours,”  Hide shrugged.   “How are you feeling?”

 

Ken clicked his mouth shut.  He had no idea how to answer that.  Something had definitely changed in the time he had been unconscious.  Sen’s presence was muted inside his head.  He felt empty and weak like the loss had drained the marrow from his bones.   It was like someone had scraped the condensation off a foggy mirror and Ken could see clearly.  In its place was an aching sense of lonliness and longing.  He wished she would speak to him and tell him what was going on.  Hide’s speculations on the beach had rattled him to the core.

 

There was no one he trusted more than Hide, but Sen spoke to that dark, broken place inside of him in a way that Hide couldn’t.  She had touched the worst part of himself and had not flinched away in disgust.  Instead she had openly embraced him and offered him a path to satisfy those dark urges.

 

It didn’t change the fact that Hide was at least half right about the things they had seen.  Maybe the two of them working together could find some kind of compromise with Sen.  After all the whole world didn’t need to suffer because of the actions of a few bad apples.

 

“Hide, we can’t be out here after dark,” Ken warned, grasping for a way to change the subject.  “Even Sen said that it was dangerous.”

 

“And we still have some daylight left.  Plenty of time to get back.  But Ken, is that what you really want to do?”

 

Hide was watching him with hooded eyes, his expression turned uncharacteristically dark.   Ken was certain that it had to do with what had happened after they came to the beach. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to spend a few more hours outside the city.  Ken needed more time to think over Sen and Hide.  “No.  I think you are right.  We can head back later.  We could both use some more rest. ”

Hide’s smile was blinding and Ken felt something tense loosen in his chest.  “Good.  Then we can just find a place and hole up on the beach until we figure something else out.”

 

“And what if we’re attacked again?  What will we do then?  Throw rocks at them?”  Ken jibbed playfully, hoping to lighten Hide’s dark mood.  

 

“Yes,”  Hide said solemnly.  “I approve of the rock throwing tactic.  We also have these.”  Hide laid a knife, a flare gun, and a single flare between them.

 

Ken produced a snort that turned into a laugh.  He buried his face in his hands and laughed until his stomach hurt.  When his guffaws died down he placed his hand on Hide’s shoulder and leaned in close.  

 

“Well we could have just left, but you had to go ahead and wreck the damn boat,”  Hide clicked his jaw shut quickly as if realizing he had said something he shouldn’t have.

 

_ Later _ , Ken promised himself.  He didn’t think either one of them were up for a long discussion about what had happened.

 

“Do you think this is real?”  Hide asked suddenly.

 

Ken turned to look at him speculatively.  The question was odd coming from Hide.  The man was the type who charged through life with a zeal that didn’t leave him time for existential questions.

 

“What I mean is, how can we know if this is real or not?  This place, Sen,”  Hide continued for a moment.  “How do you know we didn’t die and this is our hell?”

 

Ken leaned back, grunting at the muscles that strained in his back.  Whatever had happened it must have been horrible to shake Hide like this.  “Why are you saying this?”  Ken asked softly.  He fixed his friend with his best ‘I’m listening’ stare.

 

Hide snorted and scratched the back of his head.  “What if we died back there during the shelling?  Or what if the ship sank and we both drowned?  What if all of this is just our punishment?”

 

Ken understood then that this was more than what had happened a few hours ago.  This was a culmination of everything that had happened to them since they had left home almost two years ago.  Hide had always been better at hiding what he was feeling behind a mask of optimism, but Ken supposed that even he had his limits. He blew out a breath and thought about how he should respond.  “This is real Hide.  This is happening.  I am sure of it.”

 

“Everything that has happened since we have landed on this island has been impossible.”

 

“It does feel that way,”  Ken agreed.  It was Sen that had convinced him that this was reality.  Her dark and terrible presence sang with the age of the earth and her power was like a tornado.  There was something natural and elemental in her that convinced him that she could be nothing less than real.

 

He wondered for a moment just what it was that had protected Hide from feeling the full force of her.  Sen was protecting both of them to some extent, but while Ken had become completely absorbed by her logic Hide had remained relatively free of it.  Ken was certain that if Hide could sense her the same way he could he would never have questioned whether or not this was reality.  If anything Sen and this island felt more real than anything Ken had experienced in his life. 

  
  


Ken looked out to the ocean and watched the hypnotic dance of the waves.  There was nothing left to do but wait and see what would happen.  Their fates were completely in Sen’s hands and he was certain that Hide knew that as well.  

 

He was exhausted and he just wanted to sleep.  He longed for the sight of long dirt roads and wide open fields.  He was so tired of black stone and the gray-blue sway of the ocean.  He was tired of mud and blood and crippling agony.  He just wanted to rest.  “I want to go home,”  Ken blurted out. 

 

As he finished speaking the island released a terrible tremor.  Ken cried out, the eye he had received from Sen was pulsing and leaking black blood.  He was dimly aware of Hide shaking his shoulders and pulling him forwards.

 

Ken knew without a doubt that it was Sen.  This island was as good as her own body.  Her presence returned full force in his mind and he sagged in Hide’s arms.  His skull was pounding as if it would split in two.  

 

“Oh, shit,”  He heard Hide swear.  Somehow he managed to life his head and look up.

 

A giant owl was winging its way over the city and heading directly for them.

 

There was nowhere for them to run as the creature swooped over the jagged landscape.  It opened its mouth and screeched.  Hide and Ken ducked and covered their ears as the sound echoed around them.  It was a horrible almost musical sound that Ken could feel in his teeth as it passed through him.  It reminded him of screech owls crying in the night.

 

Then the creature was upon them, its talons flared open as it landed on the beach.  The sheer force of its landing sent Hide and Ken tumbling across the stone.

 

The creature hooded its wings and looked down to where the two men were kneeling like a pair of supplicants. Ken looked up at the creature.  In the center of the owls face there was one red on black eye where two should have been.  

 

Then the owls flesh began to peel away.  Its wings and feathers retracting slowly into its body.  Familiar tentacles split and released the form that was hidden within the owls flesh.  It was Sen.

She stood before them glorious and terrifying.  She was smiling.

 

“You were so close,” she said sadly.  “You were so very close.”

 

Ken scrambled to his feet and put himself directly in front of Hide.  His words dried up in his throat.  He could hear Hide rising to his feet behind him.  It shook him back to reality.  “What do you mean?”  He rasped.  He fought the urge to step back as she stepped in closer.

 

“You need more time before you come to me fully.  What a shame.  I was hoping I could keep you.”

 

She placed a cool hand on Ken’s cheek and he shuddered.

 

“Look at me,”  She whispered softly.

 

Unable to do anything else Ken obeyed.  She grasped his chin and forced him to look into her eyes.  His own eye stared back at him.  He felt drawn to her alien red on black eye and looked deeper.  

 

That was when he saw her.  Beautiful and Terrifying and Final.  She was the inevitable end that all things must face.  In her eyes he saw the slow decay of civilizations and the sudden death of stars.  He felt the slowing pulse of the earth beneath his feet and the cold death that awaited the universe at the end of time.

 

She would wait for him forever because she knew that eventually all things would come to her.  

 

He found that oddly comforting.

 

“Shhh,” She whispered.  She ran her thumbs over his cheekbones.  “Everything will be all right.  Someday you will come back to me.  But for now it’s best if you leave.”

  
Then she dug her thumbs into his eyes and pushed until he screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Camp NaNo has started. Once I finish off this prequel I am going to start putting together the last chaptered story in the series. As always- comments, questions you want answered, suggestions for side stories you would like to see are welcome. You can hit me up in the comments or send me an ask on tumblr.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Everyone goes their separate ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Last chapter! I have to admit I have been having so much fun writing this series and I'm a bit sad to see this part of it coming to an end. 
> 
> A big big thank you to Zambo whose kind and thoughtful comments since chapter 1 really helped keep me motivated and kept this story on track.

VII.

Hide wanted to laugh as helplessness descended upon him. It was impossible. He watched as Sen drove her thumbs into Ken’s skull, digging her fingers deep within his eye sockets.

Ken was screaming, blood and vitreous fluid running down his face as she destroyed his eyes. And still, he did not step away from Sen.

Ken flopped bonelessly on the beach when she finished and Hide still could not bring himself to come closer to her. She watched him as she idly licked the gore off of her fingers. “We’ll its time for me to be on my way. It was fun little weasel. Come back and play with me again sometime.”

Hide blinked rapidly, trying to fight past the fog invading his senses. “Come back?” He asked. There was no where for them to go.

Sen turned to face the sea. There came another angry rumble and the island shook. “It’s time for me to be on my way,” Sen cried out in a sing-song voice.

The waves wwere devouring the beach as the island began its return to the darkness of the ocean. 

Hide didn’t want to move. The thought of getting up and continuing after everything was almost overwhelming. It would be so much easier to just let the ocean take them, to stay put and let the cold water fill his lungs. He didn’t want to fight anymore, he just wanted to rest.

“Hide,” Ken’s weak and panicked voice broke his thoughts. Ken was groping blindling, curling away from Sen as much as he could. It was old habit that got Hide to his feet, the ingrained instinct to protect your brother in arms when his life was in danger. Hide didn’t even realize he had moved until he had his arms wrapped around Ken’s waist. 

Hide hefted Ken closer to his body. The other man sagged against him for a moment before fighting to take his own weight. Blood and gore streaked over Ken’s hollowed cheeks. The injured man groaned and let his head loll against Hide’s shoulder.

“Listen buddy, the island is sinking. We are gonna have to swim for it. Do you think you can manage?” For a moment Ken didn’t respond at all and Hide was worried he was suffering from shell shock. 

Then Ken nodded. “Let’s go. I wanna go.”

“Sure thing buddy, just brace yourself. It’s gonna be cold.” Hide shifted Ken to his right side and wrapped his tentacle around the other man. The limb would be useless for swimming.  
Hide paid no attention to this island or Sen as he walked Ken off the beach. The cold water bit through his shoes and soaked through his clothes. 

Hide was up to his knees in water when he remembered the flare gun he had tucked awkwardly into his pockets. The water continued to rise around him as he sent up the flare and hoped for the best. Hopefully a nearby shit would see the beacon and come to their rescue.

Then Hide walked on. He didn’t have far to go before the beach dropped out from underneath his feet. 

“We have to hurry,” Hide said through chattering teeth. “We need to get as far away from this island as we can.” He didn’t want to get dragged underwater when the island finally sank.

They paddled frantically as fast as they could and then turned to look back. The last onyx black tower was sinking beneath the waves. 

 

Then the ocean was still. It was as if nothing had ever been there to begin with. Ken and Hide floated on the calm waters. Neither one of them spoke. 

“You okay buddy?” Hide asked over the sound of water slapping against water. “How are your eyes?” Hide bit back a bitter laugh. It didn’t really matter how Ken’s eyes were. They were going to freeze to death long before they had to worry about drowning.

Ken shook his head and spoke through chattering teeth. “I think they are healing, but I still can’t see a thing.”

“We’ll to be honest there isn’t much to see,” Hide laughed. “Unless you like ocean and sky. And , hello, what is that?” Hide’s hold tightened around Ken. Just within sight was a boat carrying two people.

“What’s what?” 

Hide tensed and glanced at Ken. His friend was looking up at him with a frown on his face. He kept his eyes closed and Hide was relieved that he didn’t have to look into those empty sockets. With his eyes gone Ken had no choice but to rely on him and Hide was honest enough to admit that he was just as exhausted as his friend. 

“It’s a boat.” Hide said brusquely. 

“Kanou and Yamori,” Ken guessed. 

“Yeah.” There was a tense pause. Hide could just make out the features of the boats occupants. He blew out a sigh and said, “I guess we don’t have any choice.”

Hide called out and began to pull Ken towards the boat. Ken did his best to help him maneuver through the water.

“Hide,” Ken started apprehensively.

“I know, I know. Look, its either take a chance with those two or drown. I don’t trust them either.” Hide’s voice brightened suddenly. “ Together we can watch each others back.”

“That was hilarious you ass,” Ken quipped back. 

“Yeah it was pretty good wasn’t it?”

Yamori’s voice call back to them. 

“This is a bad idea,” Ken mumbled.

“I know,” Hide said sternly. There was simply no time for them to wait around for another ride to shore. 

Yamori paddled out to meet them and the apprehension in Hide’s gut grew. As Yamori neared Hide reached out and caught the prow. 

“Are you two hurt?” Kanou was the first to speak.

“We’re all right. We were just hoping we could hitch a ride with you,” Hide gave him a congenial smile as he tried to hide his apprehension. 

Kanou laughed. “Well it looks like we have the room.”

Hide shifted and pushed trapped his exhausted friend between the boat and his body. Yamori grabbed Ken’s wrists while Hide steadied him from behind. Kanou hauled his friend inside and began examining him. 

“What happened to his eyes?” The doctor asked.

“We had an accident coming in,” Hide lied. He placed his weight against the prow. The boat tilted as Hide balanced against it so that he could get a better look at what Kanou was doing to his friend..

There was a sharp slap of skin against skin as Ken pushed Kanou’s hand off his face. “They’ve already started to heal anyway. I’m fine.” He squirmed away from where the doctor had pushed him. “We need to help Hide.”

Kanou slowly turned back to look at Yamori. Some silent communication passed between the two of them. In that moment Hide knew that he was going to die.

Yamori was already moving faster than Hide thought possible. The large man grabbed the oar and swung it full force at Hide’s head. Hide didn’t have a chance to react. The blow cracked his skull and he lost his grip on the boat. Then he felt Yamori’s large, calloused hands grab his hair and push him underwater. 

He struggled wildly trying to twist out of the other man’s grip. He fumbled with the knife in his waistband. He slashed wildly trying to get Yamori off of him. The other man simply pulled him up just enough so that he could slam his head into the side of the boat. Dazed Hide lost his grip on the knife and on his remaining strength. He offered no resistance as Yamori pushed his head underwater again.

He could hear Ken screaming his name and the sound of fists hitting flesh. Then he couldn’t hear anything at all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shell Shock- Period term for PTSD. You can read more about the history of this here: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-shock-of-war-55376701/?no-ist
> 
> So that's it. If you haven't yet and you liked this story check out "City of Owls." I am not going to be posting anything until I finish up my Camp NaNo challenge for this year.
> 
> Last call for your thoughts on the final part of the trilogy and the side stories!
> 
> Thanks everyone who took the time to kudo or leave a comment. I hope you enjoyed this and I hope to hear from you all again in the next story.

**Author's Note:**

> US involvement in WWI began in April of 1917 and ended in November 1918.


End file.
